One Call
by Querida115
Summary: What if Edward didn't call, and didn't interrupt that fateful kiss between Jacob and Bella? My first fanfic, so be nice!
1. Chapter 1

AN: Kay, first of all, I know its really really short, and I'm sorry but I just wanted to get some of it out here before I even decided to continue with this. Second, this is my first fanfic, so if I do continue with this story, PLEASE give me your worst. How else will I improve? Third, this story takes place at the part in New Moon when Jacob and Bella almost kiss. I wanted to put in part of that so you could kind of figure out what was going on. So the bold part was written by Stephenie Meyer. And I don't want to give anything away, but just so no one yells at me, Bella and Edward _will_ be together. Just stick with me until I get to that point. )

Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) don't own the Twilight characters: Stephenie Meyer does.

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Chapter One

**We stared at each other for a long moment. In my face, I knew there was nothing but wistful sadness - I didn't want to have to say goodbye, no matter for how short a time. At first his face reflected mine, but then, as neither of us looked away, his expression changed. **

**He released me, lifting his other hand to brush his fingertips along my cheek, trailing them down to my jaw. I could feel his fingers tremble - not with anger this time. He pressed his palm against my cheek, so that my face was trapped between his burning hands.**

**"Bella," he whispered.**

**I was frozen.**

**No! I hadn't made this decision yet. I didn't know if I could do this, and now I was out of time to think. His face was familiar and beloved. In so many real ways, I did love him. He was my comfort, my safe harbor. Right now, I could choose to have him belong to me. **

**Alice was back for the moment, but that changed nothing. True love was forever lost. The prince was never coming back to kiss me awake from my enchanted sleep. I was not a princess, after all. So what was the fairy-tale protocol for **_**other**_** kisses? The mundane kind that didn't break any spells? **

**Maybe it would be easy - like holding his hand or having his arms around me. Maybe it would feel nice. Maybe it wouldn't feel like betrayal. Besides, who was I betraying, anyway? Just myself.**

**Keeping his eyes on mine, Jacob began to bend his face toward me.** And I knew what I had to do.

He leaned in farther, and his lips finally met mine.

I had _not _expected it to feel like this. I always knew I loved Jacob, but I had thought it was as a brother, or a best friend. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe I was just afraid to admit it before.

Did this mean I didn't love Edward anymore? Of course not, what was I thinking? My heart would always belong to him, no matter how hard he tried to reject it.

Perhaps it would come back, piece by piece, finally leaving Edward as I realized he didn't want me. Maybe one day, years from now, I would be able to give my whole heart to Jacob. Until then, this was nice. This was good.

How far could I ever go with him, while I still loved Edward? How guilty could I render myself before I completely broke down? So many questions I had, but no answers.

I ran my hands down Jake's chest, and wound up grabbing his tie. His tie? Why is Jacob wearing a tie?

Then I remembered why he was dressed up. Harry's funeral.

He seemed to realize this at the same time, because he pulled away, too.

"I….I guess I have to, uh, go. You know, to, uh, Harry's funeral," he said slowly, looking reluctant, as if the words had been wrenched from him.

And yet the smile on his face was bright enough to give even the sun a run for its money.

"Yeah. I guess," I mumbled. I didn't want him to go, either.

"See you around, Bells." Jake gave me a quick squeeze and was out the door before I had a chance to reply. I could hear the Rabbit's engine starting.

"Bye," I whispered.

I couldn't believe what had just happend. My feet seemed have their own free will, and were taking me to the counter, where I leaned over and rested my face against the cool surface.

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AN: I just wanted to say again how sorry I am for the shortness. I had more but I figured I'd just wait to see if anyone cared what happend. There isn't much of a plot in this part, but there is something big coming! 


	2. Author's Note sorry

AUTHORS NOTE:

Sorry it's not a new chapter, I know, I hate these too, I mean, you get all happy that there's something new, and alas...just some annoying message... but... I decided that I'm going to keep doing the story! xD

I just wanted to let you guys know that I actually started this story a few weeks ago, but I couldn't put it up on the computer because I didn't have Word or something that fanfic supported...I had a few chapters written in this journal thing, which, of course, I lost. So forgive me if I take a little longer to rewrite the chapters!

SO much love to you all!!!!

lauren


	3. Chapter 2

AN: I got this out faster than I would have thought, but the next chapter's going to be a lot longer so it will take a longer amount of time. So yeah.

Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish I did, I don't own Twilight. Or New Moon.

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Chapter Two

The shrill ring of the phone made me jump out of my skin, and I automatically reached for the handset.

"Hello?" The person on the other line was blabbering in Spanish, with quite an attitude, but I wasn't at school so I didn't even try to figure out what they were saying.

"¿Hola, está Pablo allí? Él me debe un poco de dinero, y tan no dígame que él está en la ducha o algo a menos que él realmente sea. Este es el Mercedes, pero no decir mi nombre porque él sabrá lo que quiero, y esto"

"Yo no hablo español," I interrupted, "Sorry, you must have the wrong number."

I hung up the phone before she could continue. _Did she say something about money? Maybe it was like a Spanish telemarketer or something. Weird. _I snapped out of that train of thought quickly when I saw a pixie-like woman appear out of the corner of my eye.

"Hi Alice," I said timidly. Then I realized that she couldn't see werewolves, so she didn't know what Jake and I had been up to. She was bound to realize something, however, when my cheeks started flaming.

"Bella..." Her voice sounded almost as timid as my own, and I couldn't even begin to imagine why. She stepped slowly into my line of vision. Well, slowly in my eyes, but for a vampire it must have been _excrutiatingly_ slow. For some reason her face looked grim. "Maybe we should go sit down."

As we walked, still rather slowly, I asked, "Alice, what happend? What's wrong? Did you have a vision?" The words burst from me, as if I was expecting the worst. Of course, I wasn't. She said that she'd stay.

"Uh...no, nothing's wrong. I had a vision, yes, but it wasn't _that_ bad..." Alice looked uncomfortable and nervous, which surprised me. This was _not_ her usual behavior.

"It wasn't _that_ bad?"

Alice sat on the couch and I joined her, hugging a pillow to my stomach.

"Don't worry about it, Bella, I doubt it will even come true anyway," Alice was trying to comfort me, and it wasn't working.

"Well you look like _you're_ worried about it!" I said, my tone urgent.

"Um, well, its, uh, not the vision I'm worried about."

When she didn't elaborate, I prompted her, "Then what is it?"

"Well...uh, Bella, I'm not sure I can sugar-coat this, so I'm just going to come right out and say it," she took a deep breath before continuing, my nails digging into her arm, "I'm leaving."

"W-what?" I spluttered, the room starting to spin. She said she'd stay! How could she do this to me? She'd _promised_. I needed her to stay! "Why? Whay are you leaving, Alice? How could you? I need you here! Please don't go!!"

"I have to. I can't explain now. But don't worry, I'm not going to disappear like before. I'll call you everyday, I don't care what Edward says." She flinched at the last statement.

"Please tell me why you're leaving," I whimpered.

"Not now, Bella. I have to go."

"Wait, you're leaving _now_?!" How could she do this to me? Alice, who I thought was my best friend. "Will you really call?"

"I sware."

"I'll miss you," I sniffled.

But she was gone.

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I was sitting on the couch, alone, but I wasn't really there. My mind was blank, as if it had gotten bored and decided to leave. Alice's abrupt departure hadn't really sunk in yet. However, when I sensed movement behind me, I snapped back into reality. 

"Alice?" I looked around, "Alice, that you?" My heart began to beat faster. I was really alone. As in, no vampires or werewolves to protect me from...but no, it couldn't be her. Alice would have seen it, and besides, I'd only been alone for a few minutes.

That was when Victoria stepped out of the shadows.

My first instinct was to run away from her, despite my inability to, well, run. But when I made to do just that, I found that I couldn't. I was immobile. I was paralyzed. This was bad.

"Paralysis. A very useful power, don't you think?" Victoria sneered at me, her voice beautiful and horrifying at the same time, "You're not getting away from me."

"You won't get away with this," I spit. If I could have, I would have flinched at that disgustingly cliche statement. But I knew it was true. It had to be true. Jacob and his pack would come to save me. They would. They _had_ to.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm not going to waste my time talking to you, when it took me this much effort to even get to you. An entire pack of werewolves intent on protecting a weak little human who befriends their mortal enemy. I'll never understand that, but oh well. I'll survive. You, however, will not," Her eyes were getting darker and darker as each second ticked by.

"B-but...why me?" I had to keep her talking.

"Stupid, stupid human. Do you not remember James?!" Her eyes were now black as pitch, her nostrils flaring, and her vampiric visage was, to say the least, furious. Sheesh. I had only been trying to delay my impending demise. Apparently all I'd done was remind her of her purpose.

"I - but...but I wasn't even the one who k-killed him! Why me? I'm just a human!"

"Mate for mate. Seems like a fair trade to me, bitch," Victoria growled, and I was sure she couldn't control her thirst much longer. She inhaled deeply.

She took a step forward.

"Please," I begged.

"Not a chance."

She crouched, preparing to spring at me. I closed my eyes, hoping it would be quick. In the blink of an eye, her powerful legs propelled her at me, and I felt a sharp pang as her razor-like teeth sunk into my neck, and the fiery burn of the venom as it was released into my bloodstream.

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AN: Yay! I finished the second chapter!! Let me know what you think. By the way, the random Spanish speaking was just there for my personal enjoyment, and it might not all be correct since I used an online translator, but anyway, the person on the phone says, "Hi, is Pablo there? He owes me some money, and so don't tell me that he's in the shower or anything unless he really is. This is Mercedes, but don't say my name because he'll know what I want, and that" and Bella says, "I don't speak Spanish." 

Just in case you care. xD Review!


	4. Chapter 3

AN: Here's Chapter 3.

Disclaimer: Nope

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Chapter 3

Pain rippled through my body, and I tried to muffle my screams of agony. I could feel my life begin to slip away, and was trying as hard as I could to hold on to consciousness. Black spots were clouding my vision, but I heard a loud crash as the door was ripped off its hinges and I felt something enormous and soft crash into Victoria, pushing her off of me. Before I slipped into an unrestful sleep, I smiled weakly. My werewolves had come to save me.

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I had lost track of time, but when I opened my eyes, I was in my room. I couldn't remember getting there, but I figured that all my homework must have worn me out last night. But I couldn't remember doing any homework. Wait, wasn't it spring break? What happend yesterday? 

Thats when I noticed the dark figure in my rocking chair.

"Woah! Holy shit, Jacob, you scared the pants off me!"

He just looked at me. I glanced at the clock and noticed it was 4:15.

"Why did I wake up so early?" I mumbled to myself.

"Bells, its, uh, four fifteen in the afternoon. Don't you remember what happend?" Jake looked at my with a _very_ confused look.

"Honestly, no."

He looked a little uneasy, but took a deep breath, "Victoria...well, she came.."

I cut him off, with this morning's activities flooding back into my mind, "Oh my god. What happend to her? Did you kill her? Did she hurt you? Are you okay? Wait! What about...she bit me! Oh my god, am I a vampire?" Then, even though all I cared about right then was the answers to those questions, my stomach growled. Loudly.

"Uh, maybe we should go downstairs and get some food. I'm kind of hungry too." Jacob got out of his seat and came over to lend me a hand.

I took his hand, but didn't stop the flood of questions. "You didn't answer! Has it been _three_ days?! But...but..."

A look from Jacob silenced me. "Let's go eat."

I went quietly, my hand still in his. We had held hands when we were just friends, but somehow, now it felt more...intimate. I wondered if it felt like that to Jake, or if I was just being silly.

He sat me down at the kitchen table and opened my fridge. "What do you want?"

"For you to answer my questions." I smirked at the opening he had just given me.

"I meant to eat." He looked uncomfortable again, but must have realized I wasn't going to give up, because he sighed and came to sit next to me.

"Well, even though Victoria bit you, the venom hadn't gone very far in yet, and she was able to suck it back out."

"WHAT?! Why on earth would she do that?! She _wanted_ me to die!" I couldn't believe my ears. This didn't make any sense.

"Uh...well, see, I kind of had her in a chokehold...she obviously wasn't ready to fight me...and I was going to kill her if she didn't save you. I killed her anyway." Jake looked rather proud when he stated that fact. I was proud of him, too.

"Wait, you _killed_ Victoria! On your own?!"

"I guess..." He was trying not to brag, but I thought he certainly had a right to do so.

"Jake!" I screamed, "That's so incredible!!"

He grinned and looked at the floor, but I threw myself at him, my lips crashing onto his.

It surprised him, because it was very unlike me, but he gladly picked me up and sat me on the counter, not breaking the lip lock once. I broke the kiss, but nestled my head into the space between his neck and shoulder. We wrapped our arms around each other and sat there in silence, not wanting to ruin the moment. That's when we heard something hit the ground outside the window. I glanced over, as did Jacob, and I could have sworn I was hallucinating. The person standing outside had thrown a bouquet of roses onto the ground. Hard. I jumped off the counter and ran to the window, without tripping, but by the time I got there, Edward was gone.

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"Bastard! How could he have the _nerve_ to come _back here_ after what he _did _to you?!" Jacob was ranting, but I wasn't listening to any of it.

I continued to look out the window, staring at the remains of the roses. That was when the flood of tears started.

"H-he was b-bringing _flowers_." I was in shock. None of this made sense. Shouldn't I be mad at him? Shouldn't I want to kill him for leaving me, and causing me the most pain I had ever felt? And why would he be bringing roses? Were they even for me? But who else would they be for, Charlie? How could he expect me to forgive him? _Could_ I forgive him? Should I?

There was only one way to solve this problem, and when I looked over towards Jake, he opened his mouth in shock.

"NO. Bella, I know what you want to do, and you _can't_. You can't. He hurt you. You have me now." But I knew he could tell by the look on my face that I was determined. "Fine, Bella, go. But don't let him feed you any lies, and make sure he realizes what he did to you. Maybe send him a personal message from me. Tell him I wouldn't mind if he burned in hell. More than wouldn't mind. Would enjoy it."

I frowned at him, but sighed and said, "Fine."

He looked relieved, and as I went to get the keys to my truck, whispered, "You're not going to take him back, are you?"

The devastated look on his face made me cringe, but I answered truthfully anyway. "I don't know. But he said he didn't love me..."

I was confused, to say the least.

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AN: Not quite as long as I'd have liked, but I didn't want to go any further than this. It kind of bothered me that Bella had to kiss Jake, but that's what had to be done. Don't get mad.

Review! xD


	5. Chapter 4

AN: Okay. I'm sooo sorry this took soooo long. I had a lot of stuff to do, and now I have band for approximately eight hours a day until school starts, so...yeah. Updates will be spread out. Oh well.

Disclaimer: I disclaim Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse (xO) So don't sue. Thanks.

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Chapter Four

Driving to the Cullen's home left much time for speculation as to why _he_ returned. Jacob had insisted upon coming with me, in order to "protect" me. I didn't bother arguing that I didn't need protection; he was too stubborn. We sat in silence, but both of our minds were reeling. More quickly than I would have liked, we were pulling into the Cullen's driveway. Jacob and I sat there for a minute, delaying the inevitable moment of walking through the door.

He finally said, "Ladies first."

I let out a shaky breath and opened the car door, setting both feet on the ground before I collapsed.

"Bella!" Jacob grabbed me up of the ground and slammed the door shut. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Jake, it just...it still hurts. Badly."

He gave me a pained expression, then suddenly stiffened, and I realized we had company. I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and turned to see all but one of the Cullen clan.

My chest suddenly tore itself open, and I gasped, folding my arms across my torso and leaning heavily on Jacob, just trying to hold myself together.

All six of them stared a tme, wide-eyed. Even Alice. That surprised me, and she must have realized it because she came over to me and bluntly asked, "Are you with the _wolf_?"

I was so taken a back by her tone, all I could do was stutter back, "I...uh...well...yeah."

She frowned and said, "Well, Bella, we'd all like to talk to you. Alone."

A sudden burst of confidence surged through me, and I retorted, "_You'd_ like to talk to _me_? I told you everything, Alice, and I'm sure you've told _them_ all of it," I threw my hand out, gesturing to her family, "_I'm_ the one with the questions."

Surprised for a moment, Alice had to regain composure before continuing, "Fine. But _he_," she nodded her head in Jacob's direction and wrinkled her nose, "stays outside."

Tremors started rippling down Jacob's body as he said, "Not a chance, I..."

"Fine." I cut him off, and he gave me a look.

"Bella, no way are you going in there by yourself."

"Oh, yes I am. Besides, you're having enough trouble controlling yourself as it is."

He narrowed his eyes at me and started to argue, but I walked up to the house, Alice next to me, not speaking.

"Are you mad at me?" I whispered, ashamed to hear the crack in my voice halfway through the sentence.

She smiled at me, a smile that would have made every man in the world, and a few women, go weak in the knees.

"I'm not mad, Bella. It's just, an unpleasant surprise. And seeing how I'm not exactly used to surprises, I don't deal with them well."

I grinned and threw my arms around her, glad that the happy Alice was back. But the grin left my face as soon as I stepped in the doorway.

Carlisle, Rosalie, Esme, Emmett, and Jasper were standing in a line in the middle of the room. I struggled with an appropriate facial expression, as I was unsure whether or not I was mad at them.

Jasper seemed to realize my struggle, because he said, "Bella, we didn't want to abandon you. Edward didn't want us to contact you, and, well, he's our brother. He trusts us. Of course, none of us thought he was doing the right thing." He gave me a tentative smile, and I ever so weakly returned it.

We all stood there, unsure what to do. It was Emmett who broke first. He was suddenly at my side, picking me up, and squeezing me too hard.

"I missed you, Bella. It was kind of lonely not having a human around." He grinned at me.

"Ow," I gasped. That was all I could manage; Emmett was squeezing my chest too tightly.

"Emmett, put her down, she's turning purple," Esme smiled warmly at me.

"Sorry..." He grinned sheepishly at me, and I grinned back, rubbing my bruised ribcage.

" Its okay, I missed you too."

That was all it took for Carlisle and Esme to come and hug me too. Jasper kept his distance, but smiled at me again, and that was when my grin was finally whole-hearted and a tear of happiness rolled down my cheek. This was perfect. Well, except for Rosalie, who just stood there, looking uncomfortable. And the fact that each of their inhumanly beautiful faces reminded me a little of _him_.

"We all missed you, Bella. But we need to talk." Carlisle looked at me seriously.

The grin left my face. I swallowed, and stared at the floor.

"Have a seat."

I tentatively sat on the couch, not relaxing my position, and traced the small criss-cross pattern that was formed by the material. Keeping my eyes averted, I cleared my throat.

"Go ahead, then. Talk."

Carlisle shifted his eyes around, took a deep breath, and said, "You have to stay away from your werewolf friends."

This brought my glance upward, and I gazed incredulously right into his eyes.

"Haha, funny. Next."

"No, I'm serious, Bella. They're not safe, and we don't want to see you get hurt."

I was furious.

"Oh. My. God. _They're_ not safe? And I suppose _you all_ are? There's no way I could leave them, especially Jake. But I guess you already know what I'm like when I can't be with those that I love. Hypocrites!" What gave Carlisle the right to say that? It was my life, one that they had willingly left, no matter how much they had missed me.

"You love him?" a quiet, glorious voice uttered from behind me.

I turned around and started to stutter my answer, but before I could force a word out, rage began to boil. Fury swept through my body, and the Bella we all know and love had left the premises. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Jasper had left the room. Anger raged through me, and I was red in the face, for once not because of embarassment. I had never been this mad before.

Without taking the time to think about my actions, I reached up and slapped Edward across the face. I realized belatedly, though, that he was not at all injured by a mere human. But then, how could I explain the look of pain prominent on his face?

Embarassed by my thoughtless and impulsive actions, I turned to leave, but I couldn't stop myself from whispering, "I hate you."

It was a big fat lie.

I couldn't explain the way that, even through all the anger and hurt, my heart seemed to be whole again as soon as I had laid eyes on Edward. And even though it had been purely malicious, just being close enough to Edward that I was able to touch him was the most wonderful feeling.

As I walked back to my car, all I could see was th look on Edward's face after I had slapped him. He barely even felt it, so why did he look so pained?

Confused yet again, I tried to concentrate on my forward movement, side-stepping the myriad of twigs scattered across my path. I was staring at the ground when I suddenly felt two stone cold hands grab my arms. I couldn't stop my feet in time, and crashed into Alice's rock-hard body. My legs got twisted around each other, and I would have tumbled to the ground had she not had such a strong grip on me.

When I finally regained my footing, I looked at Alice's face, and my own face promptly turned pink in shame. Her expression was a mixture between anger and sorrow, which, in addition to being unlike her (although I had seen it becoming more common recently), summed up my feelings towards myself for my parting words. They were juvenile and pointless, as Edward didn't care how I felt about him. He didn't care about me. Regardless, the idea that I could ever hate Edward Cullen was ridiculously absurd.

"How dare you speak to my brother that way!" Alice's golden eyes were dark and intimidating in a way the only she could manage.

"I didn't mean it..." I wan't sure how to explain this one. The rage had come out of nowhere.

"_I_ know that, but Edward doesn't! Do you have any idea how much you just hurt him?" She stared at me, her angry eyes less intimidating and more incredulous.

"What?" I would have had a thousand comebacks had I not been so damn confused. All of a sudden, nothing made sense.

"Bella, you slap the man that loves you, tell him you hate him, and you don't expect him to be devastated?" The way she was looking at me implied that I was mentally deficient.

My stomach had clenched at the word 'love'. I glanced over the top of Alice's head and saw Jacob bobbing his head and mouthing the words to a song on the radio, completely oblivious of what was going on just yards in front of him.

"Edward doesn't love me." Strangely, I was able to say his name without any side-effects such as bursting into tears or having my chest ripped into pieces.

Alice's expression quickly changed into one nearly as confused as mine, her eyes lightening almost instantly.

"What? Bella, Edward loves you more than anything. When we left it was like he had died. Again. He wouldn't leave his room, he wouldn't speak to any of us, he refused to do anything other than hunt and sit in his room listening to the same song over and over again. We were actually starting to wonder whether it was possible to institutionalize him when he announced that he was leaving. This was the only thing that he had said to us in the entire time we had been gone, and it was very upsetting. We wouldn't have let him go, except that Carlisle said that there was more of a chance that he would heal if he acted on some plan that he had been sitting on. I couldn't see it, because he hadn't decided to actually put it into action. And when he did, I couldn't figure out what he was doing. He did tell me eventually. Actually, not until yesterday. He was tracking Victoria. I can't quite figure out how that helped him, though."

My mouth was open and moving and strangled noises were coming out, but nothing discernable. No way could Edward still love me. But why would Alice lie? If he didn't love me, she would have politely avoided the topic like she did at Charlie's. Was it possible? Then something clicked.

"Distractions," I muttered, slowly sinking to the ground, my body starting to shake with quiet sobs. Alice sat next to me and wrapped her cold arms comfortingly around my shoulders as tears began to spill. When he had claimed that there would be things to distract him from the memories, he meant that they would distract him from the pain. The same pain I had felt when he left, tearing my heart out with his departure. The pain of lost love.

"Does he really love me?" I asked between sniffles.

"Truly, Bella, I do."

I noticed a shadow that had fallen across me, and Alice got up to leave. She grinned and winked at me before walking into the house. Now there was the Alice I was used to.

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AN: Not very long. Whatever. Review. I've gotten an EXTREMELY higher amount of hits than review. I don't care if you say, "You suck. Go die." I just want to be acknowledged. xD

lauren


	6. So Very, Very Sorry

Yes.

This is an author's note. I'm so incredibly, amazingly, unbelievably sorry, but...well, this story is going on hiatus.

Its obviously not over, its just that school is FINALLY starting to ease up a little (and marching unit is over!) and my grades are starting to slip. I don't know how this happend, but it did, and now I have to bring them all back up.

And, of course, being me, I never wrote down the rest of the story (like an outline or something.)

So...well, since its been so long since I've even had a chance to think about this story, I kind of forgot...almost everything. (

I swear, as soon as I get everything settled, this will come back full swing.

I promise!!!!

Just...don't plan on an update for...well at least the rest of the year (which, when you think about it, really isn't _that_ long...)

Again, sorry, I'll get back to this ASAP!


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